GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE CUSTOMIZATION By Stephen Perry, IRO IRC ACCRA FEBRUARY, 2012

Why would you want to customize in the first place? Google often gives you irrelevant, outdated results that have no bearing on your research Many of the links are also outdated But, what if you could create your own Search Engine with just the sites that you trust; sites that as a professional you use every day? These could be free, open access databases, or better search engines, or think tanks, or…sites in a specific language

So, if you would like to know how you can do this, this session is for you! The first and most important step is to have a GMAIL ACCOUNT. Go to and create an account if you don’t already have one. Once you are logged in to GMAIL, you will see a screen like this:

GMAIL: once in GMAIL, Navigate to MORE and then EVEN MORE (on the top of the screen)

One you click on EVEN MORE, you will see a SCREEN FOR CUSTOM SEARCH (as shown below)

Click on CREATE A CUSTOM SEARCH ENGINE

Fill out the Form that appears, as shown below

So, let’s say that you want to create a reliable new search engine that just searches THINK TANKS. HOW WOULD YOU DO IT? The process is surprisingly easy: INSERT WEBSITE URLS THAT YOU WANT TO SEARCH HERE

You will now list the sites (as per the previous slide) that you want your new search engine to cover In the FORM, give a description of the Search Engine, list all the sites you want it to cover (the number of sites you can choose is unlimited) and then at the bottom of the form, check the box that says you agree to the terms of use and then click NEXT.

When you click NEXT, you will have the opportunity to choose a STYLE (as shown below): then CLICK NEXT

When you click on NEXT, you will see the screen below. Ignore the Script and simply click on MY ACCOUNT at the very top right of your screen.

Find iGoogle in MY ACCOUNT, and then click on Settings next to iGOOGLE as shown below

In iGOOGLE SETTINGS, click on ADD NEW GADGETS, as below

In the SEARCH FOR GADGETS BUTTON ON TOP RIGHT, TYPE “CUSTOM SEARCH CONSOLE”” (without quotes) as below

When you find the CUSTOM SEARCH CONSOLE, ADD IT TO YOUR iGOOGLE account, as below and click on ADD IT NOW

After adding the Custom Search Console, click on BACK TO iGOOGLE HOME, where you will see the SEARCH ENGINE YOU JUST CREATED

While still in iGOOGLE, next Click on HOMEPAGE for the SEARCH ENGINE you just created

If you clicked on Homepage, you will see in iGOOGLE the URL you can now share with others for the SEARCH ENGINE you just created, and you will see the search engine itself!

You can then add that URL to your Blog, your Twitter Accounts, your facebook, web sites, and all your Social Media assets To reduce the size of the URL and make it easier to share, go to: and plug in the URL. will then give you a more manageable URL you can then share with others and plug in to all your Social Media assets.

If you wish to add new sites later on, no problem, simply click on SITES under the search engine you just created and add any sites you wish, after the fact

By clicking on SITES, you can now add any new SITE you wish, and you can continue to add new sites weeks or months after you created the search engine

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE NOW CUSTOMIZED A SEARCH ENGINE and the ACCRA IRC wishes you many happy results

Results in the customized GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE we just created! We use IRAN as a search example to search just THINK TANKS

Thanks for attending this session! IRC ACCRA ACCRA, GHANA RITA AWUKU, IRC DIRECTOR SOLOMON MENSAH, IRC ASSISTANT IRO STEVE PERRY, ACCRA FEB 2, 2012